


High Up Above Or Down Below

by fujiidom



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: Bad Fic, Crack, F/M, Non-Canon Relationship, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 21:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fujiidom/pseuds/fujiidom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when you put two doctorates, matching superiority complexes, and a mild drinking problem in a jar and shake it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	High Up Above Or Down Below

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hellolamppost17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellolamppost17/gifts).



_when you try your best but you don't succeed_

When Sloan graduated cum laude from Duke, it felt like it should be enough. She felt like that should’ve been what she needed. Two degrees should get people to stop staring at her tits instead of listening to her explain what fiscal deficits are.

But when she walked across the stage, she didn’t miss the dean of economics’ eyes shooting down and up before shaking her hand and offering over her diplomas.

The more things changed, the more they stayed exactly the same.

###

_when you get what you want but not what you need_

Don sat alone at the bar, his chin cradled in his hand, and his eyes glazed over. There’s a glass of scotch and mostly melted ice forgotten, beneath where he’s leaned against the bar top. 

He’s missed many nights out for work, so he shouldn’t hold Maggie to a different standard. But, maybe that’s why he feels so betrayed. For him, to not show up meant that he was fucking someone else, and he can only assume that it might mean the same for her.

And that’s fine. Whatever. He hoped the sex was better than the sex they had together which was usually a little vanilla for his taste. He just couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t dating Maggie, even though he knows that most of his life has been lived that way. 

The song on the bar’s sound system changed to something he danced with her to at a wedding or family party; there was a flash in his mind of her stepping on his toes and him berating her two left feet. He threw a few singles on the bar and walked out, sick to his stomach.

  


###

_when you feel so tired but you can't sleep_

Sloan—or Dr. Sabbith, as her students called her and she’d forced herself to get used to—collapsed on her sofa in a heap after a long day of seminars and financial analyses grading. It would be easier for her to assign less work or to expect less of her class, but she held herself to a standard and refused to let anyone else get off easy just so she’d have more time to relax and watch TV Land reruns on her days off. 

She had shit to do, people to prove wrong. 

She kicked off her stilettos and rolled her neck, trying to get comfortable and fall asleep on the couch, rather than having to get back up and move to her bedroom. Instead, she ended up hatewatching _Mad Money_ for two hours and taking notes on what she wanted to lecture about the importance of media literacy during her next class. 

Some day she was going to anchor her own financial report and she would never let herself look like such an idiot. Fuck Jim Cramer’s Keynesian bullshit right in the ass.

 

###

_stuck in reverse_

Don's gears jammed and he accidentally backed his car into a fire hydrant on his way home from work and caused almost half a grand in damage. He’d never been so furious at owning a car in the city in his life. For some reason this was Maggie’s fault. 

A lot of things ended up being Maggie’s fault, but since it was her idea to bring a car here it was maybe a little more legitimate a place for blame than usual.

He drove home with the bumper dragging on the ground and making a truly horrific noise, all the way down Central Park West. He drank an entire bottle of wine and passed out before the sun had even set.

 

###

_when the tears come streaming down your face_  
 _when you lose something you can't replace_  


Sloan won’t let herself break down after the shit hits the fan. She got mad, she got angry, but she didn’t cry in front of everyone. She wanted to punch Don in the face, but he’s nowhere to be found when she got off and was still looking to crack skulls.

When she finally let herself cry later, it’s only once she got in the shower and can pretend as though it’s just the water from the showerhead dripping down her face. 

 

###

_when you love someone but it goes to waste  
could it be worse? _

Even if Maggie hasn’t actually slept with Jim (Don is 99% sure she hasn’t because otherwise maybe she’d at least attempt some discretion) her blatant interest in him seemed painfully obvious to everyone but Maggie. Somehow that made it hurt more. 

It made him furious that it hurt at all.

 

###

_lights will guide you home_  
 _and ignite your bones_  
 _and I will try to fix you_

Sloan cornered him in the hallway the next week after he’d dutifully avoided her for as long as he could. The way her eyes narrowed, Don can tell she’d been preparing all the things she wanted to scream at him for hours. 

He was surprised when she just pointed at him. “Fuck you, Don.”

If or when he had a heart attack, it wouldn’t be because of his ninety-hour work week. Women.

 

###

_high up above or down below_  
 _when you're too in love to let it go_  
 _if you never try you'll never know_  
 _just what you're worth_

Two months after Don split with Maggie, Sloan walks into that bar. 

That bar they used to go to together. Where he sat alone, hunched over a watered down scotch, and stared into space, three times a week and pretended it counted as a social life. 

He could tell without looking that she saw him and hesitated at the door ready to back track her steps. Instead, she knocked her clutch twice on her left hand and walked right towards him.

 

###

_lights will guide you home_

Don still went to that bar. But now he didn’t sit alone, he took his scotch neat, and he stared at something instead of nothing. For fun, he’d rattle off market symbol abbreviations and get free advice on whether he should buy or sell.

Too bad he didn’t have any stock options.

###

_and ignite your bones_

Sloan had thought he’d just be a good lay, but when she’s topless and crawling into bed, Don’s eyes stayed locked on hers. Dead on. Unrelenting. Predatory.

She’d never screamed so loud in her life.

 

###

_and I will try to fix you_

Jim and Maggie got married in the spring. No one fucking cared.


End file.
